A Fusion of Frienship and Corruption
by TheGreenDuke
Summary: Zeyra'Jay was exiled eighteen years ago and now, after meeting up with her past and making a bad-ass suit, she is going to make up for all the pain she suffered. TalixOC ( I think ) Post-Reapers
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

For Zeyra'Jay life had been struggle after struggle. Nothing ever went right for her, from being exiled as a child to her shoddy life in a cramped bio-dome on a remote moon. She had lived there for two thirds of her life so far and she had hated it. Over 16 years in a cramped dirty apartment with nothing but repairs and bartering since the age of 15 and even then it was '_for the good of the colony_'. It wasn't even a colony! Just a group of lonely '_suit rats_'. Unlike her family most of the other quarians there had actually committed treason and they all told tales. It had sickened her parents to be classed among these traitors and eventually they had fallen into a deep depression. From that point Zeyra had worked four years solid to make life better but it was for naught since they had lost too much. They had both died together after becoming malnourished; they gave all their food to Zeyra though she didn't know of it until it was too late. When they died Zeyra had nothing left. The guilt of her being the cause of their deaths had eaten away at her ever since.

Zeyra had as ways been a strong spirited individual and her guilt had shown itself as rage towards those responsible for her and her parents' exile. She had started a personal crusade against the Rayya. She left her colony almost immediately and headed straight for Illium, the one place she knew fortune could be found to start her crusade.

Zeyra's life on Illium hadn't started as planned since all the shelters in the actual city were full of quarians from the migrant fleet and I couldn't stand them.

'_It was quite late in the night cycle and a lone quarian in her silver suit was walking them the dim streets of Illium. The homeless shelter was just up ahead, apparently run by a kindly man named Conrad Verner, and that was her destination. The shuttle she had taken from Eden Prime had been in transit for a couple of days and a cramped cargo hold wasn't very comfortable, though no worse than the dome really, and she needed somewhere to stat. As she opened the door to the shelter she was greeted by an asari clerk who looked and asked warmly_

_"Hello there traveler. Do you wish to stay the night or are you looking for information?"_

_Zeyra replied after a moment "I would like to stay the night."_

"_Oh good. You arrived at the perfect time since we just received some new__ flavours__ of nutrient paste. Please follow me." The clerk said warmly as she stood and started walking towards the elevator._

_After a quick ride they were standing in a long hallway with dorms branching off it on either side. Zeyra was in awe. The rooms were gigantic compared to the colony and it was actually clean._

_"Wow..." was all she could say as she looked around. The asari clerk chuckled and started forward again heading towards one of the smaller dorms, perfect. This was perfect. They reached the door and she took the keys off the clerk before opening the door and stepping into the room. It was amazing how well it was cleaned a kitted out and sprawled out on the bottom bunk was her new roommate who positively exuded energy._

_"Oh hello. You must be new around here. So glad to meet you I'm Jahi'Kic nar Rayya ..." Zeyra suddenly felt a huge volcano of rage building up inside her as Jahi kept talking " You'll take a while to get used to the schedule but that won't matter since your bound to meet a few new friends. What's your name?" _

_"Never, EVER mention that place to me." Zeyra said in a voice of pure loathing." If you speak of the quarian race, the fleet and especially the Rayya I shall break your mask in your sleep."_

_Jahi and the clerk looked absolutely gob smacked as she continued "Actually I shall sleep in the slums for the rest of my journey on Illium. For the record I am Zeyra'Jay, nothing else." She felt nothing but anger for the woman in front of her as she strode out.'_

From then on she had slept out in the slums while trying to get work on Illium. It had been hard but she had managed for at least a month before it all went to hell.

_'She had been sleeping in her little alcove when she heard two sets of footsteps treading menacingly in her general direction. As she opened he eyes she spotted two eclipse mercs walking towards her jeering and laughing with each other._

_"Yeah I spotted her a week ago. Apparently she refused to go into the shelter."_

_"Stupid suit rat. Now no one will care if we use her. Shoulda stayed there."_

_She froze. As the mercs came closer she noticed one was a turian while the other a batarian. Moving as quickly as possible she grabbed her safe box and knife before sprinting out of the secluded spot and into the street. Her suit was dirty from living in the filth of the slums and her knife was blunt but she would rather go and live in the Rayya than give up._

_As she shot into the street the mercs cried out and started running after her. As she ran at full pace she could feel her muscles tiring and the box kept poking into her ribs. The mercs weren't far behind and after a few turns Zeyra found herself backed against a dead end with two angry mercenaries.'_

What had happened that night had woken her up to how deadly the real world. After that she had spent time training before joining up with Eclipse. That had been two months ago and at this moment she was on a shuttle heading down for a tech raid on a deactivated geth station. It was going to be her first encounter with the geth. Zeyra was completely psyched.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

As they drew near

Zeyra's team rushed out of the airlock and set up a crude perimeter while the captain doled out commands. She was sent along with two other engineers to retrieve any geth tech while under escort. As she stalked down the corridor with her predator pistol in hand she noticed all the very compact design of the geth dropship. Every single nook and cranny was filled with some sort of folded up tech or geth platform. Along one side of the corridor was a rack of miniature mining lasers and mounts while along the other was a plasma tool kit.

"Holy shit!" the human engineer next to her exclaimed quietly while the rest of the squad nodded in agreement. She had never felt anything so electric: the adrenaline, preparing for a fight, and the anticipation of her entire squad. They proceeded along the corridor as quietly as possible purely on instinct. Though the ship was meant to be derelict Zeyra couldn't help but feel uneasy. Geth were notorious for being able to activate at any time if the stories of the colony were anything to go by.

As soon as they passed into the cargo hold they heard a huge whirring sound as the rows of deactivated geth shock troopers came online.

By the time the recruits had gotten down Zeyra had already fired an overload at a trooper draining its shields while firing off her predator. It fell immediately but soon another was there another to fill its place. There was almost a constant line of shock troopers being killed by the combined fire of ten mercs. Though they had a good defense the troopers were slowly whittling down their numbers, first to go down was the human engineer who took two shots to the chest and lay there gurgling on the ground. Zeyra started feeling sick but had to focus on the two troopers laying covering fire down on her position. Across the position she saw two batarian mercs being blasted repeatedly. Her left flank was open so she ran back into the corridor while grabbing a second predator from the dead engineer. She sprinted past the captain while taking shots to her shields. She just managed to get to cover before her shields fell. After recharging her shields she leant out with her two predators ready, all of them were dead. The captain with the other engineer had been shot in the head while the other six mercs were just lying sprawled all over the cargo hold.

Zeyra was terrified. She had no support against a squad of shock troopers. She ran out of cover while dual firing to cover herself as she sprinted back along the corridor to the airlock. The shock troopers recovered quickly from her burst and gave chase. With only terror fuelling her actions Zeyra quickly ran before spotting something. She grabbed a mining laser off the wall, lay it on a shelf before hacking it. She was knelt there hacking for only a few seconds before the geth reappeared at the end of the hallway firing their pulses. Her shields were draining quickly for two seconds before the mining laser activated and cut the first three geth to pieces. She stood up and grabbed another laser before continuing her sprint to evac. She burst out into the docking bay to see something that chilled her blood. They had left. They had left her on a hostile ship with a couple of pistols and heatsinks.

She turned around to face the rest of the troopers with mining laser in hand. As she started charging the laser the troopers began firing. One shot hit and the mining laser started glowing. Two hits and laser began spinning its projector. Three hits and the laser fired taking out all six troopers just as the last of her shields fell. She was now alone on the ship.

She began searching the ship from top to bottom and managed to find out dextro rations for a week as well a set of the best tools and electronics apart from reaper tech. She also managed to discover that the ships core is completely out so she wouldn't be moving it without a completely new one. The electronics were running on solar power so she could change to coding and send a distress signal. Another nice thing was that this ship had a complete decontamination system so the enviro-suit was optional. The by far greatest discovery had to a room filled with various models of deactivated geth, from hunters to primes to mining drones.

There was a week and the countdown had started.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N this chapter is longer cause I looked at my other two and realised just how short they were. ooops. I am up for suggestions about where the story should go so please send in ideas.

-TheGreenDuke

**Chapter 3**

At first Zeyra trying to collect all of her tools and stuff in the storage area to set up a base of operations. She had decided to send out a signal on the fifth day and until then she had an entire geth ship to strip and tinker with.

The first day was spent decontaminating the entire ship and walking around without her suit. It felt wonderful to be so free for once even though she was trapped in space. On that first day she also formulated her plan and got to work non-stop on stripping apart the geth hunters.

By the second day she had only rested for a few hours and she was feeling under the weather from being out of the suit but continued none the less with her plan and began isolating the cloaking devices of the hunters and taking apart the armour plates of the prime.

The third day was similar to the other days but this time she took a huge leap of faith and disassembled her enviro-suit. Zeyra was feeling shattered from her work but continued on stockpiling her parts.

The fourth day was a lot quieter than the other two as she decided to recuperate some energy. She was had now managed to get some geth hardplates, cloaking devices, her enviro-suit systems as well as the beginnings of a modified mining laser.

Her fifth day had to be the most manic as Zeyra had to start putting together the pieces as well as setting a distress signal. She was planning on making a super-suit out of the parts but with only basic knowledge of the advanced systems she was using it was a mammoth task. She had no clue how to optimize the cloaking system never mind how to attach it or calibrate the mining laser.

The sixth day had to be the most frustrating as all her progress kept being stalked by tiny flaws and slip ups. When she tried to get the cloaking mods working the power cells weren't charged enough to get them working and the environment systems had a lot of glitches. Zeyra was getting desperate. She had until her rations ran out or someone found her to make a new enviro-suit or she would die. She wasn't scared of death as she had nothing to leave behind and nobody who cared. She was annoyed that she wouldn't be able to complete her quest.

On the seventh day Zeyra worked non-stop to get her work complete before she either ran out of food or be rescued. She didn't expect any rescuers to be friendly, or clean, so getting the suit working was an absolute necessity.

She was just putting what she hoped to be the last of the repairs when a message came through the ship's radio.

"This is the SSV Normandy responding to distress call. Please respond."

She froze before rushing up to the comms. She wasn't expecting any warning so she took the most of the opportunity.

"Thank you SSV Normandy for responding. Please allow me five minutes to get into my suit before you board."

"Ok. But why do you have to get into your suit?" came the pilot of the Normandy's reply. He sounded rather doubtful so Zeyra rushed down to the hold betide they could board. When she got back down to her workshop it was the moment of reckoning for her new suit. She stepped into it.

Meanwhile-

Tali was VERY confused. The voice sounded like a quarian. What was a QUARIAN doing on a GETH ship OUT of her suit? It was the first she'd heard of such a thing. Commander Shepherd had thought it was suspicious as well and asked that Tali and Liara go on with her, armed. Tali grabbed her shotgun and carnifex and rushed to the airlock. Liara was already waiting in her hardsuit and Shepherd arrived not long after. She came down with her shotgun and carnifex as well.

"Ok squad. It has been four minutes since the transmission and I am feeling weird about this. We're gonna go in now so that if it is an ambush they haven't got fully ready and if it is a quarian out of her suit, by some weird miracle, they can get it on. Got me?"

"Yes Shepherd." Came the instant reply. Tali agreed completely with this logic and immediately readied her plasma shotgun.

They opened the airlock with a loud hiss and charged forward, and were greeted by nothing. No ambush. No geth. No quarian.

"They are further in." said Liara "Hello! Were here to help! Are there any issues?!"

She was greeted by silence. Not long after they heard a faint clanging. To their left before a large geth decloaked in the hallway to their left. All guns were raised but before they could fire it pointed a charged laser at Tali's mask and called out

"Put the weapons down. I was just getting my suit on and scouting you out. You can surely understand this as you are Commander Shepherd." Though Zeyra sounded confident she felt anything but. She hadn't expected Commander Shepherd to turn up but Tali turning up completely threw her off.

"Who are you?" Shepherd called out but Zeyra ignored her and said quickly

"Lower your weapons or ill blast Tali's face in." this was met by a stunned silence as they processed what the random woman had said.

"You wouldn't dare!" Liara shouted, breaking the silence, before Shepherd could say anything.

"Oh wouldn't I? You don't know me." the woman shouted, obviously trying to put conviction into her voice.

Tali suddenly recognized that voice "Zeyra?"

"Hello Tali. I would've called sooner but you know how that would've gone." Zeyra spat with the utmost contempt "Now lower your weapons." she said in an eerily calm voice "Three ... Two ... On-"

"Stand down!" Shepherd quickly called while strapping her shotgun to her back while Liara put her carnifex away, Tali was still frozen in fear, and sadness.

"Good now can I please get a ride to Illium?" said Zeyra while powering down her laser. Tali suddenly broke down

"Oh Zeyra. I'm so sorry. I was so petrified and I froze up so I couldn't do it. I didn't want you to go but I was so scared and I was under pressure from my dad and my aunt and the other people of the conc ..."

"Shut it Tali. It all still happened no matter how sorry you are." Zeyra said coldly "About my rescue?" she asked a thoroughly confused Shepherd.

"Ok. You can hop aboard." said Shepherd slowly.

"Can I request that you tow this ship with us as it is a goldmine of technology?"

"Like I will let you have the entire geth dropship. I don't think so."

"I will cause no harm. I will be staying in the ship to continue repairs to my suit." The Normandy team finally got a good look at Zeyra's suit. It looked like a normal geth trooper but with a couple of new details. On the left shoulder was what looked like a repurposed mining laser and along the left arm there was two hardplates outside of the upper and forearm. The mask of the suit had the geth 'flashlight' integrated into it as well was having most of the glass replaced with metal. The normal fabric hood of the normal enviro-suit was still there. The suit was obviously designed for a female quarian and most of the tubes of the original geth had been moved.

Tali was the one to break the silence. "Zeyra. Please let me travel in the drop ship with you? I could help with the suit and I feel so guilty about my past mistakes." She proposed hopefully.

Underneath the suit Zeyra was torn. Her hatred for all of the Rayya's crew, especially the Zorah's was rekindled but there was a small part of her that knew it was uncalled for. The deciding factor was that she knew Tali to be an expert engineer, something she needed.

"Ok Tali. You can travel with me. Though, you will stay in your suit while traveling."

"That's fine." Tali replied before Shepherd could respond but Shepherd continued on anyway.

"I need to know that Tali is safe with you." Zeyra replied confidently

"I am not a fool Shepherd. Harming Tali would just be a death wish." Zeyra replied confidently. Shepherd considered this for a moment before replying.

"Ok. I'll leave now. Tali will return here after gathering her tools and we shall hook up the Normandy to this ship. Bye Zeyra ..."

"Zeyra'Jay"

"Well Zeyra'Jay I hope you can sort something out."

Tali was confused once more. She had returned from the Normandy to help Zeyra but was having trouble thinking what to say. Zeyra's exile had been hard on Tali as she knew she probably could have swayed her dad's mind but at the time she had been too afraid to try. This had caused her only friend, for all of her childhood, to hate her and never be seen again. Tali had been eight at the time and had been depressed for months before she finally got her act together. She had decided to never back down after that incident, no matter how scared she would be. That attitude had been the only thing driving her to her success. She was now completely unnerved for the first time in sixteen years. Zeyra was her only true fear. She really wanted to get Zeyra's friendship once more but had no clue on how to do it.

She was heading down to the cargo bay, where she had been told to meet Zeyra when she heard the airlock close and the decontamination start. By the time she had gotten down to the temporary workshop she saw Zeyra there, completely naked with her suit on the table and its wiring open. Tali was honestly taken aback as she found herself staring at Zeyra's striking figure with unusually large breasts (for a quarian) and wide hips. She was very attractive by human standards but she probably wouldn't attract many quarian males. Tali actually found herself getting very hot before she could rein in her thoughts. She stopped that train of thought as quickly as she could and walked up to Zeyra.

"Tali. The suit needs its defogging and waste removal systems fixed to properly detect moisture while in the suit as well as properly connecting the optics up properly. The geth optic sensor is going to be linked up to the laser while activated. Activation will maneuver a viewing port in front of my right eye, like a scope. I already have a working viewing port I just need to do the wiring for activation then calibrate it. We will work separately on the head or other systems. You can start on the environment systems first please." Tali wasn't surprised with the straight-to-business attitude. Zeyra had always been confident and assured (even if she only acted it she did it VERY well) as well as logical. If someone she hated could help her she would accept their help and would still be professional.

"Yeah ok Zeyra." Tali replied before moving down with her toolkit to the torso of the geth-enviro-suit. They worked for several hours with only their tools to keep them company. Tali wouldn't mind it if her head wasn't constantly thinking about Zeyra. If it wasn't how cold she had turned it was how tired she looked or how attractive she really was. These thoughts kept popping up when Tali wasn't concentrated so she kept to herself and just worked on the suit. By the end of the day Tali had fixed the enviro-suit systems as well as increasing the efficiency of the solar panels she noticed were part of the back of the suit. When Tali decided to stop working she looked over at Zeyra and noticed she looked rather stuck.

"Need some help Zeyra?" she was silent for a moment before replying.

"Not really. I was just wondering if you could reroute wiring for the viewing port through the defogging system's central cable without disrupting the signal." Tali was surprised that Zeyra was talking so normally with her again. Instead of question it Tali just walked round the table and helped Zeyra in her brainstorming. It only lasted a minute but by the time they had finished Tali was shattered. Zeyra kept going

"Tali." Zeyra said still lost in her own world but regaining her coldness. Tali left the bay, but not before leaving several nutrient tubes in the storage compartment of the suit. When she left the hold to contact Shepherd she heard the doors close and lock behind her. Startled by the noise she spun round just to hear Zeyra's naturally husky voice shout out.

"Just precautions. Keeping my designs to myself. I know you too well to know that you would definitely send holos of new tech to your precious Rayya. I'm surprised Shepherd hasn't noticed yet!" Tali thought about whether this was a jab from an old friend or her trying to regain her caustic attitude but as she was thinking she heard Shepherd say on her omni-tool.

"Well Tali is that true?" she froze.

"Well. I ... I might have sent something. Nothing much classified, I don't think." she replied nervously. Shepherd didn't reply immediately so Tali panicked. "Oh Shepherd please don't kick me off! I swear I'll do anything to stay on the Normandy. Anything you want! I'll do toilet duty for the entire trip or... or clean your cabin everyday. Oh please Shepherd!" Tali heard some soft chuckling, which turned into full blown laughter, on the other end of the line after her rambling.

"Oh Tali. You're so precious when you run on! Of course you can stay on. I was kidding with you. EDI found the transmitter and I have been informed that Adams leaves the holos out deliberately." Tali felt her cheeks burn as Shepherd replied.

Meanwhile-

Liara had always had a good people instinct those she chose to hide it. When she had first met Zeyra'Jay she had immediately known that hatred wasn't all there was to her, and she was incredibly intrigued by her and if the was worth her salt as the shadow broker she was going to find out why.

After exiting the geth ship she had gone straight to her terminal and started her search. Upon bringing up the Rayya's records she found two quarians with the same last name as Zeyra, Tomi and Laiya. They had been exiled for unlocking the terminal to the private archives for hackers to raid. At their trial Zeyra at the age of eight had burst into the room and started laying down claims that she had seen the incident and that a certain Tibi'Reegar was the hacker, wife of a well-respected and loyal military major. Zeyra said that her and Tali had been planning to surprise Tomi'Jay but he had been knocked unconscious by a woman in red and green with a syringe. Zeyra had gone and collected the syringe and placed it in a sealed container as evidence, at the age of eight as well. The Admiralty had taken the syringe for 'testing' but no data was ever even submitted. The Jays were exiled for treason but as the ruling was being passed Zeyra had called up Tali'Zorah, her other witness. Tali was apparently a very shy girl so she froze up when in the spotlight, very different to the Tali she knew.

Liara guessed that this corruption, and probably bribing, of the Admiralty to exile her family had caused her caustic attitude on all matters including the quarians. Though this didn't explain her pure hatred for them now something regarding this must have happened to expand her feelings

Though Zeyra hated to admit it spending time making stuff with Tali again had been very enjoyable even after all these years. She knew, really, that at the age of eight Tali would never have been able to cope under the pressure in that trial. It was just that she had trusted Tali to pull through for her friend just that once, and she didn't. At the time it was crushing but she had forgiven Tali after several years of thinking about it. Sadly all that had been undone with the death of her parents. After that all reasonable thoughts on the matter had given way for hatred and a thirst for vengeance. Her parents had been the only good thing on that shithole of a colony and when they died from depression all those thoughts about the Migrant Fleet had all changed so she only thought of the Admiralty as worthless bosh'tets.

Being back with Tali for a while had refreshed her mind and now she finally had her feelings under control she had decided it was time for a long overdue talk with Tali. She put her suit on and strode out of the cargo bay into the bridge.

When Zeyra entered the bridge she just caught the final words of a conversation Tali was having with what seemed to be Liara

"... Ok Tali I believe you. Keep safe oh great Admiral Tali'Zorah." Liara sounded happy and from Tali's stuttering, it sounded like they were talking about something embarrassing though that wasn't what had caught her attention.

"So Tali I hear you're an Admiral now." she said in her coldest voice possible "I hope you're not like those spineless vorcha shites." Tali visible started before replying in a confused voice.

"Zeyra. I thought you would be in the cargo hold."

"Shut up Tali. I hope you haven't started taking the bribes or blackmail yet, I bet it's too soon for that though. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the fact since you are the admiral's daughter. Or is that were. Did the Reegars pay enough to have him offed or did he just freeze to death?" Tali suddenly got very angry

"Now look here you cold bosh'tet. My father died a hero looking for a way back to Rannoch. And what did you say about the Reegars. They are one of the most honourable families I know. You knew Kal, how could you say such a thing?"

Zeyra's voice took on a dangerous tone and slowly began rising in volume "Oh sorry. I forgot you couldn't see past your mask as well as conveniently forgetting my fathers shit excuse for a trial. It was painfully obvious that that bitch Tibi'Reegar had bribed the admiralty to not do the tests on the syringe! I may have only been eight years old but I wasn't stupid. That syringe contained conclusive evidence showing who used it, who it was used on AND what was in it! When that didn't come back it was obvious they hadn't tested it. I'm sorry that you were happy in your ignorance but that one minute where I could've used you coming out of you shell, it didn't happen. I know you would've found it hard but I was your only friend Tali and you KNEW what really happened. You KNEW! But nothing came out, did it. My family was exiled and you lost a friend. End of story, right." Zeyra was fully worked up and there was no stopping her now "I forgave you later. Once I worked it out and realised that you would've been petrified and even then the Admiralty were too corrupt for any evidence but that changed when my parents died. They starved out of depression since for fourteen years they had to live in the filthiest little colony you would ever have had the displeasure of going to, filled with REAL traitors. They were fiercely loyal and hearing the 'glory' tales of betrayal wore on them. They finally snapped and started giving me their only food until they passed away. And you know why? YOU KNOW WHY?! BECAUSE THE ADMIRALTY ARE SPINELESS FUCKS WHO COULDN'T SAVE THE FLEET IF IT WAS HANDED TO THEM! Goodnight Tali." Zeyra walked out of the bridge feeling spent and immediately went and crashed on the workbench of the cargo hold. Unbeknownst to her the line Tali was on with Shepherd and Liara had been open for the entire outburst.

On the bridge-

They were shocked. No wonder Zeyra was slightly off the rails. She had lost everything. No home, family, legacy or even friends. Liara was the first to break the silence.

"Tali. You need, absolutely need, to get through that grief. She obviously doesn't really hate you, as you said earlier; she just has unresolved grief and no purpose as well as a fiery rage. If we can't get through to her in the morning or keep tabs on her, she could fall far and fast." Tali replied after a moment, sounding rather mournful.

"I know its just she probably won't let anyone through those wall unless she isn't concentrating and that will be rather unlikely with no immediate upgrades requires for her suit. If I mess things up further she will never forgive again. She probably doesn't want to let anyone in as her logic is flawed and she knows it. The problem is that flawed logic is the only thing driving her and if that is brought down she will probably just take her own life. It's the simplest and most logical solution, the one she would take." they all sat in silence for a minute before Shepherd came up with a plan.

In the hold-

In the hold Zeyra was thinking about the future, normally something she tried to avoid. Now that she had this suit most people would probably be afraid of her so becoming a vigilante of sorts was possible, but who would she protect? She could try and get a job with an engineering shop so she could upgrade her suit even more or if she worked as a body guard she would get paid well enough to get upgrades. It was going to be hard as without a working ship she couldn't search the galaxy or become an assassin.

Her musing were cut short by Tali slowly walking towards her.

"Hey Zeyra. I figured that you wanted to talk before you heard that I was an Admiral." She greeted Tali with silence. "I never wanted to be Admiral. It sort of just happened. It's a pain having to sort everything out for people and I haven't had any cases of corruption yet. I can see that you would dislike the Admiralty but nothing like your case has happened at all." Silence "You know that I have always felt guilty about what happened. It taught me a lesson that has allowed me to come this far, though it ever erased the guilt." This finally got a reaction from Zeyra.

"Well I glad it helped you." She said bitterly.

"Come on Zeyra. Talk to me. I want to make this up to you no matter how impossible that is." Zeyra was silent for a moment before replying

"Please stop Tali. If you continue this you will get me to realise how shit my life is and then I have nothing."

"You can have me Zeyra. I never stopped being your friend."

"How can I rely on you now? What changed?" Zeyra said, turning around to give a pointed look at Tali.

"I realised how much my timidness cost me. It cost me everything. Your right, I DID know what happened and yet my irrational fear stopped me. From then I realised that I needed to get over it, and I did. I have never missed an opportunity or chance in a way to remove the guilt. I had to live with the fact that I condemned my only friend. I considered your parents to be like my own and now I learn that they died of depression caused by exile caused by me. I feel so bad about this Zeyra." Zeyra thought for a moment before responding softly

"I don't blame you Tali. I can feel that you are sincere but trust doesn't just appear."

"Then please let me try." Tali waved her omni-tool before continuing "I have sent you my contact details. Please give me a chance Zeyra. It is all I ask for." Tali then walked out leaving Zeyra to her thoughts; she only got to sleep an hour later.

Zeyra was woken by Tali calling for her to get up and meet her on the bridge. After shaking off some of the tiredness and powering up her suit, she made her way to the bridge.

"Oh hello Zeyra. Good to see you made it." Shepherd said in a really joking voice, Liara just sighed. "We're five hours away from Illium and we would like to talk." Zeyra immediately got suspicious. "What we want to know is what you plan to do on Illium with your new extremely badass armour?"

"None of your business."

It was Liara's turn to speak "Ok Zeyra we won't ask. Just we would like to give you a little boost seeing as you don't seem to have much. We are planning to take the Geth dropship but if you hadn't noticed there is a Geth research vessel in the starboard dock. We are going to give you the vessel as well book a dry dock for you to fix it up in. For this we only ask that you try not to fall too far and that you reconsider your current goals."

Tali then piped up. "As an Admiral I have also listened to what you said and I will try my hardest to remove corruption and bribes as well as re-evaluating your parent's case. I know it won't change much it will mean that you can come back to the fleet at any time. What do you say?"

Zeyra was surprisingly relieved. After her talk with Tali she had been so lost and now they were offering her a solution. "Fine. I accept your conditions but do you have any idea what else I could do?"

"We all thought that since you are pretty much kitted out you could go to Omega or Illium and root out corruption there."

"Ok. Tali I like what you plan but here is a reminder to keep your word." This drew confused sounds from all of the other three before Zeyra quickly drew the laser and blasted Tali just above her left breast.

"Ahhhh. What the hell Zeyra?!"

"This mark will scar you and your suit but it has not actually caused anything else. I know that you will be able to cure it completely so you have a choice: keep it or don't I shall be back in the hold until we land."

When Zeyra had left Tali finally got a good look at the mark. It was to short parallel lines with a longer diagonal line passing through both, Zeyra's signature that she had always put on her work.

"Oh my god are you ok Tali?"

"Yeah Shepherd. As she said it was only a mark." Tali said, trying to sound as light as possible.

"We'll get Chakwas to fix you up in the clean room if you want."

"No its fine. She's right though, about the Admirals. Why did you get a clean room anyway?"

"I told you so you can do stuff when you start a relationship."

"Shepherd. Tact was never a strong suit of yours."

On Illium-

When they landed a security detail began to immediately search the drop ship. All they found was a geth fighter and a 'super-suit-rat' as the head of security had called her. After a good hour of assuring them that there was no hostile geth on board they were allowed into dry dock. Zeyra had immediately got to work on the geth research vessel.

She started by cutting out the cockpit so she would have a screen to look out as well as putting all her, rather meager, belongings in the storage area. With the help of Tali and a turian called Garrus Vakarian they had managed to get it running after just a day. Zeyra was extremely grateful and had taken Liara's words on board. She didn't act hostile to Tali anymore but she didn't trust easily so Garrus had to deal with the ice queen. Afterwards they decided to go for a drink.

"Ok Tali, Garrus thank you for all your help. It is very much appreciated and so I will be buying for this evening."

"Oh it's no probl..." Garrus said before Tali elbowed him and said

"Thank you Zeyra it is appreciated." before only talking to Garrus. "She WILL pay so it's just more painless this way."

The evening went well as conversation was flowing though it wasn't too easy. Eventually Garrus asked the one question that nobody else had asked.

"So Zeyra how did you end up stranded in a geth dropship?"

"Eclipse ditched me." this shocked Tali who immediately replied.

"Eclipse?! What were you doing with them?"

"When you are in the slums with no food or money and you end up killing two of their mercs, they let you in and you get paid as well as being able to eat. It was the most logical solution." Zeyra said nonchalantly. Tali and Garrus were pondering this when a few humans came stumbling up to them. They all looked drunk.

"Hello suit rats." the leader said with a pronounced slur. "What are you doing here? I'm sure you can't pay and you're harassing that poor turian." Before Tali or Garrus could respond Zeyra whispered "I've got this." and was up off her stool. She stood in front of the lead human and she was easily taller than him by a good two inches in her geth-suit.

"What did you just call us?"

"You're suit rats!" they all jeered back while surrounding Zeyra. Garrus put a chit in Tali's hand before saying

"100 creds on Zeyra needing help."

"You're on and I put 150 the other way.

"Deal." after that the fight broke out. Zeyra made the first move by punching the lead human in the gut before head butting him straight into the ground. She then staggered as the rest piled on but Zeyra quickly charged forward, getting out of the circle and taking two of the with her into a wall. She punched them both before turning around to face the others. The man she had head butted had stood up but he wasn't too steady on his feet while the two that were behind her were trying to peel themselves off the wall. Before they could try anything she shouldered one to the floor before kicking his ribs and then turned straight into a punch from one of the others. By now bouncers were coming so she ducked under the next punch before lifting up the dude and charging into the three behind him. One of them was left so she just punched his lights out before walking over to the bar in time to see Garrus hand Tali 250 credits.

"Good job. Crude but good job."

"That's why I'll try to use my laser as much as possible." Zeyra said lightly, which earned a chuckle from Garrus. "I'm going to the docks to take my ship into orbit." she said as she started walking out. Just as she reached the door she shouted out. "Tali! REMEMBER!" before she promptly disappeared, literally.

"What did you say about her paying?" Garrus remarked. Tali wasn't really listening. She was wondering if they had really changed her. She then felt something touch her scar and put something in her pocket. It was a credit chit.


End file.
